February Wine Vocabulary

Vitis Aestivalis (VEE-tis ess-tiv-VAY-lis) A family of grape vines native to North America. Sometimes used when making hybrids to lower acidity or reduce the “foxy” flavor of vitis labrusca grapes. The most commonly known grape in the wine world from the v. Aestivalis family is the Norton, sometimes called Cynthiana, that makes a dark colored and intensely flavored wine somewhere between a cabernet and a mourvedre. There is some debate as to the exact origins of Norton, and whether Cynthiana is a different grape or just a clonal selection. Norton wines are made in Virginia, Missouri, Texas and other states in the American South.

Gewurztraminer (Guh-vertz-trah-mee-ner) A grape native to Germany, and also grown extensively in the Alsace region of France, known for producing slightly sweet wines with a “spicy” finish. The spices here are different from the spices in oak, namely they are more toward the baking end of the scale and tend to be described as sweet clove, nutmeg, white pepper, cinnamon and cardamom. The “spiciness” of gewürztraminer combined with a small amount of residual sugar (say, one to four percent) makes an ideal accompaniment to foods that are “hot” spicy- think Thai, Tex-Mex, Tandoori from India or traditional cuisines in southern Mexico and Cuba.
Gewurztraminers can also make very elegant dry white wines capable of aging for several years, though these are rarely found outside of Europe because of the demand for them is much higher in Europe than the United States. The grape is also capable of producing some very sweet dessert wines, on par with the best in the world. The dessert versions can be slightly easier to find, but tend to be quite expensive for most wine drinkers.

Dry Farming (drī FArm-eng) A practice of vineyard management that uses very little irrigation water, in an area that generally does not get much rainfall. Cover crops are added between vine rows to help conserve soil moisture. The reasoning behind dry farming is that the grape vines will have to work a little harder, sending their roots down further and thereby creating a grape (and by extension wine) that has a much higher concentration of flavor for its size, and a stronger expression of the place where it was grown- what the French refer to as terroir.

Aroma vs. Bouquet (ə-rō-mə vs. bō-kā) While similar in function, these two words refer to two different aspects of smell. Aroma, when used in wine terminology, means the smells coming from a young wine- and young is a relative term her; it could mean a ten year old Bordeaux that was meant to age for thirty or more years, or it could refer to the smells given off a glass of last years’ chardonnay. Bouquet, meanwhile, refers to the range of smells coming from an older wine. For whites, five years plus in age is old enough to qualify, and for reds you can start thinking about the bouquet at ten to fifteen years- depending on the style of wine. An older wine will generally have a much more complex set of smells than a younger bottle; for example a young cabernet might give you blueberry, clove, vanilla and red plum aromas. An older bottle from the same producer might give you a complex web of earth notes, tobacco, dark berry fruit and subtle oaky spice at the edges; meaning essentially that it was difficult to isolate specific smells from the wine. On the occasion that you open a bottle of wine that has been aged too long, it is quite valid to use words like ”water”, “oxidation”, “old berry” when describing it- what has happened is that on a molecular level, the wine is beginning to separate and the varied components are no longer holding together.